Passionate Cont still making films The late Cont Mhlanga

Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
Cont Mhlanga, the founder of Amakhosi Cultural Centre who retired and relocated to the village in Lupane two years ago, seems to be putting his time to good use there.

He is busy making films in the bush with the latest production being Zyanyongana that is set to be shown on ZBCtv.

“As Zimbabweans, we should tell our stories and not shun them. This is what I’m seized with in the bushes of Lupane — preserving our national heritage through film,” Cont Mhlanga said.

He says Zimbabwe communities are enriched with stories of legends that are not being told.

One such legend according to Cont is Malila Mawala, a rainmaker who was from Binga. He said Mawala could travel faster than a car and walk to Zambia across the Zambezi River. Other reports were that he could enter the hot springs in Binga to emerge with pumpkins to feed the community. Such a story inspired Cont to come up with a drama series called Zyanyongana that is being shot in Binga.

“This person lived in Binga and died in 1977. However, nothing has been said about him in books or other media. It’s a pity that such stories haven’t been told to our people and there are so many of them around Zimbabwe.

“What’s needed is to come up with films. This is what I’m seized with in the bushes of Lupane, telling that story through the Zyanyongana drama,” said Cont.

These sentiments come at time when Cont was recently commended by the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services in a tweet for being integral in bringing quality content to local TV screens.

“Content production is key to our efforts to bring choice and variety to our screens. The Ministry is grateful to Mr Cont Mhlanga of Amakhosi for training actors, directors and technical crew in Binga and Lupane.

“Under his tutelage, Binga artistes wrote and directed Zyanyongana,” tweeted the ministry.

Cont said he was happy that the ministry acknowledged his efforts and implored Zimbabweans to embrace their culture and heritage.

He said if people can believe that Jesus walked on water, they should also believe that legends such as Mawala could also do such miracles.

“When we’re told that Jesus of Nazareth walked on water, we think that it’s very important. But when we’re told that Mawala did that in Kariba, it’s all of a sudden sorcery.

“This, however, is a true story that you’ll find in Hwange being told to children there, but the rest of Zimbabwe doesn’t know about it. I want to tell this story because it is about our culture and the power of our own religion.”

Mhlanga challenged Government to help filmmakers to tell the Zimbabwean story.

“If it’s going to be a Ndebele story in Lupane, let it be. If it’s going to be a Venda story from Beitbridge let it be. Don’t try and please everybody as the industry doesn’t grow like that.”

In order to promote cultural diversity and tell authentic Zimbabwean stories, Cont said there was a need to have structures in each province that will serve as production hubs.

“Each province should have its own production hub to come up with quality productions. These hubs will be able to bring together many people with different skills,” Cont said.

He said without such structures the film or art industry will remain stagnant.

“It’s important to create proper structures in order to help the industry to grow. If you don’t do that, you create people who compete against each other.

This is because there are very few resources and they’ll end up pulling each other down, backstabbing and destroying platforms that they could use to grow,” said Cont who has tutored most of Bulawayo’s arts personalities.

Besides filming some shows to be aired on ZBCtv, Mhlanga said he was still rearing goats and enjoying every bit of it.

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